CyberKnife® for Soft Tissue Tumours

Limitations of treatment

This website features CyberKnife radiosurgery, the most advanced and flexible form of radiosurgery available today.

CyberKnife is a pain-free and non-invasive treatment which uses multiple beams of high energy radiation precisely targeted on the area to be treated for maximum effectiveness and to spare adjacent healthy tissue.

What makes CyberKnife different is that the radiation source is mounted on a flexible, robotically controlled arm which allows great freedom of movement. At the same time the tumour is tracked continuously using sophisticated software, so that its position is re-evaluated and fed to the delivery device between each individual dose.

For tumours of the brain and spine the patient's own bone structure is used to provide markers, but in soft tissue this is not possible. Small metal markers (fiducials) are therefore implanted near the tumour, to provide this source of reference. This then enables CyberKnife to track the tumour accurately through small body movements and through unavoidable natural movement caused by breathing.

It should be stressed that CyberKnife is not suitable for all soft tissue tumours. Different tissues have different absorption characteristics and development of new treatment methodologies is ongoing. In some cases it may offer palliative treatment only but may still reduce pain and improve a patient's quality of life.

CyberKnife's strength lies in the ability to target single or at most a small number of tumours of small or medium size with great accuracy, even in difficult or inaccessible places such as wrapped around nerves or blood vessels, where surgeons cannot operate.

It is usually possible to employ CyberKnife even where a patient has received the maximum dose of conventional radiotherapy, but it is not appropriate for large tumours.

For larger tumours which are partly inaccessible or in dangerous locations it may be appropriate to use conventional surgery or chemotherapy first to reduce the tumoral mass and then employ CyberKnife to deal with the remaining difficult areas.

For details of the latest treatments available with CyberKnife radiosurgery you can visit the manufacturer's web site for patients www.cyberknife.com.

CyberKnife employs fine beams of high power radiation, so the larger the tumour the greater the quantity of radiation the patient receives and of course, because the treatment is non-invasive, the tumour is not physically removed. Dead treated tissue remains where it is until the body can gradually absorb it.

The difficulty in treating these soft tissue tumours by radiosurgery is that they are always moving as the patient breathes, so until recently it was not possible to treat them by radiosurgery with any great accuracy.

Latest information

As the technology has advanced and additional software has been developed it has become possible to extend treatments to a range of soft tissue tumours including tumours in the lungs, pancreas, prostate and liver.

CyberKnife was initially concentrated on tumours of the brain and spine and other neurosurgical interventions, including AVMs (arteriovenous malformations), acoustic neuroma and trigeminal neuralgia.

For example breast cancer is not yet treated but see the Breast Cancer page for other methodologies.

It is not suitable where the cancer has become widespread, though in such cases it may be helpful after chemotherapy if a single stubborn tumour remains.

Treatment enquiries

To enquire about treatment at a choice of CyberKnife centres visit the CyberKnife Patients page.

CyberKnife Radiosurgery Treatments Brain and Spine Typical Treatment Patients North American Patients

www.a1med.net

S P E C I A L I S T T R E A T M E N T S P A G E S

Site Map

Links

References